By Zephyria 
3
“This is….”
But it seemed I wasn’t the only one who was angry.
“Ha, that mouth?”
Thwack.
“Ugh!”
“If you’re someone who knows about ‘that mouth,’ you wouldn’t be fueling rumors until the group’s image hits rock bottom.”
‘…What are they talking about?’
It seemed to be about ‘Yeon Yujin,’ but I had no information, so it was frustrating.
‘Cheap and petty bastards. Beating me when I have no weapon?’
With both hands held by Ra Ho-yeon, I was defenseless.
Then, a guy with red hair kicked me in the stomach.
“Ugh….”
So hard that I instantly felt like throwing up.
‘Crazy bastard!’
If Ra Ho-yeon was right, this crazy bastard just kicked a patient who barely recovered from a car accident.
As I bent over and staggered back, the red-haired guy coldly threw words at me.
“Oh, you forgot everything, didn’t you? You’re so lucky. You can just erase all your memories and forget that you ruined our group. That’s why you’re constantly mocked on internet communities and NewTube channels with titles like ‘Idol who would have been better off not debuting’!”
“Shin Tae-beom! Stop it!”
The fight stopped only after a middle-aged woman in a suit intervened.
“President!”
“Making more noise here won’t do any good. Fighting among yourselves only benefits those devilish people who are searching for sensational news.”
“……Tch. Fine.”
The red-haired guy, Shin Tae-beom, stopped his aggressive behavior only after hearing the President’s words.
Instead, he glared fiercely at the hospital room door. It was quite noisy outside, as if onlookers had gathered.
“Tch.”
Shin Tae-beom scratched his head roughly and glared at me, saying.
“Consider yourself lucky.”
Consider myself lucky? After getting hit?
“What’s he saying? This bastard.”
I snapped. I turned around and punched the red-haired Esper in the cheek as he was about to leave the room.
Thwack.
“Ugh!”
The red-haired Esper flinched slightly.
“Huh.”
‘This is what a full-force punch feels like?’
Compared to my dead body, it was like a cat’s soft paw.
There was no impact at all.
“I’m so dumbfounded, really…….”
As I was feeling lost, the red-haired Esper, holding his cheek that didn’t even hurt much, shot sparks from his eyes.
“Hey, Yeon Yujin. Are you crazy?”
It was a reaction of ‘How dare you hit me?’ I replied nonchalantly.
“Hope you have a lucky day too.”
“You little—!”
Unable to bear it any longer, he rushed at me violently.
“What’s going on? Are they fighting!”
I didn’t care about the voices of the people buzzing outside.
“I need to fix this bastard’s manners!”
“Look who’s talking.”
Thump, thump. We were entangled like one body, wrestling and screaming to land even one more hit.
The company officials watching this shouted in unison, as if screaming.
“The face! Just don’t hit the face!”
We started by hitting the face, so how could we not?
Disgustingly, I was the one getting hit more.
Ruthless violence was inflicted on me as I was pinned underneath.
“Ugh!”
“Why are you acting up when you’re not even a handful?”
‘Because I was pissed, you bastard.’
Yeon Yujin’s body was trash compared to my body in my past life.
‘How can a guy have so little strength?’
I didn’t give up and used every ounce of strength I had to hit the red-haired Esper, but he only reacted as if it tickled.
“Hey, give up? If you don’t want to get hit more.”
“Crazy….”
I was supposed to be the craziest dog in the front lines, second only to Hyeon Jae-ha in terms of strength.
‘You think I’ll give up and back down with that kind of threat?’
No way.
As I held out my hands, the red-haired Esper sneered.
“Yeah. So you’re giving up….”
Grasp.
“Huh?”
What I grabbed was his red, luscious hair.
“Hey. Why would I give up? We have to go to the end.”
Let’s see who dies today.
“Argh! You crazy bastard! Touching the hair is cheating… Aaaargh!”
The words surrender and defeat don’t exist in my dictionary.
“Let’s see until every pore is torn out. Even an Esper can’t protect their hair, right?”
The red-haired Esper finally got scared at my completely insane tone.
“Aaaargh! Manager Hyung! Save me!”
The red-haired Esper struggled to get me off, who was stubbornly holding onto his hair, but I stuck to him like glue.
“Aaaargh! My hair!”
As the commotion from the brawl grew, nurses finally rushed in to mediate.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
The brawl ended only after the nurses and hospital security guards joined forces.
‘Damn. It hurts.’
My cheeks started to swell. My stomach, which had been kicked, also hurt. This body was terribly weak. It was humiliating and frustrating.
‘Shin Tae-beom, was it?’
As I revealed my gaze, contemplating how to tear that bastard apart, the President looked terrified and sent the young Esper away.
“Alright, alright, you guys go in before there’s more noise! Yujin, you just focus on treatment quietly without thinking about causing any more trouble!”
“…Understood.”
Always answer the questions of superiors. That was the first rule I learned when I enlisted in the army of Espers and Guides.
‘That person is the boss of this body’s owner… I guess?’
So, I relaxed the tension in my eyes and nodded. The President looked somewhat relieved and disappeared, dragging the group away.
“……But what happened?”
Information, I needed information.
Something to understand this absurd situation that had happened to me.
‘I’ve already been hit a few times, so it’s not a dream. And that foul-mouthed bastard cursed at me, so it’s definitely not heaven.’
If it were heaven, I would have seen my partner, Hyeon Jae-ha, first.
‘Even though I sacrificed myself for him, it was a difficult condition to survive…….’
I stopped the useless thoughts and rummaged through Yeon Yujin’s belongings.
In the old eco-bag, there was only a wallet, a half-empty water bottle, and a smartphone.
Thanks to the facial recognition system, I didn’t have to bother unlocking the password.
“Yeon Yujin… Yeon Yujin.”
After searching the internet for ‘Yeon Yujin’s’ personal information, I summarized it as follows.
Real name: Yeon Yujin
Stage name: Yujin
Born: April 21, XX
Age: 20 (19 years old)
Affiliated Group: SeCrity
Agency: HB Entertainment
Debut: 20XX SeCrity single album
Special Note: The only D-Class Guide in the team “What… is this.””
Three pieces of information surprised me.
First, the current year was at least 20 years later than the year I knew.
Second, ‘Yeon Yujin’ was a Guide, yet he was not called to the military and was safely enjoying social life.
Third, and most absurdly… this agency debuted a group by tying four Espers and one Guide together as a team.
As idols.
“Huh.”
It wasn’t even funny. Putting Espers and Guides together to form an idol group?
‘Are Espers and Guides overflowing in this era? So much so that there’s no controversy even if they become idols?’
I searched and searched again.
I kept searching for Espers, Guides, the military, and so on.
But all that came up were… trivial things.
[Korea’s top guild, ‘Garam,’ scouts another S-Class Esper]
[5 rules to know when manifesting as an Esper or Guide]
[The current status of Espers and Guides who chose civilian life… The Third Way Project for special Ability Users led by the government]
The search results all said that the world had become peaceful.
I couldn’t find even a speck of news about Espers or Guides being conscripted and dying.
“…That hellish period, after 20 years, it’s become nothing?”
About 20 years ago, the moment that was still vivid to me was a hellish period of upheaval.
Dungeon Breaks occurred, and countless lives were lost due to the monsters that emerged from them.
Perhaps as a reaction to that, humanity began to produce special Ability Users, Espers and Guides.
People rejoiced at the discovery of Esper and Guide pairs, Ability Users suitable for fighting monsters, and drove them all to the Gates.
Saying that they were the only ones who could save humanity.
Espers and Guides, including Jae-ha and I, had no choice.
A life where it was lucky if you didn’t die today. A terrible life where you couldn’t promise or expect tomorrow.
‘That was the life I knew as an Esper and Guide, but…….’
The world had become peaceful as if that had never happened.
Espers and Guides were given the option of being civilians, and it was okay for them to have the job of an idol.
No, it seemed to be even better than that.
Just looking at the advertisements decorating the internet banners, you could see Espers and Guides belonging to famous private guilds.
An Esper with an unknown handsome appearance was advertising a famous brand of perfume, and a Guide was a famous influencer on SNS.
“Haha…….”
Even though the reality I had only dreamed of was unfolding before my eyes, I wasn’t happy.
‘This isn’t my life.’